Chilean 'Pitbull' is no stranger to the position for his country

There is an age-old football mantra about managers building from the back. Get rock solid defenders, particularly at centre-half, and the foundation is provided for your flair players to win you matches.

In the modern era, there is a new twist to that. The best teams insist upon footballing defenders, possession being nine tenths of the law.

Particularly in the Premier League where carelessly lumping the ball upfield simply means good players running it straight back at you and putting the back four under pressure.

It wasn’t really a problem for Dave Jones’ Bluebirds in the Championship, while playing out from the back in the top flight wasn’t a strength of Malky Mackay’s City.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, on the other hand, has made it abundantly clear he wants his defenders to be comfortable on the ball. Something, I guess, which emanates from his own playing days when his centre-back colleagues included Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Henning Berg and Ronny Johnsen.

Even big Jaap Stam, known as a non-nonsense, rugged ball-winner, could play. Which Dutchman can’t?

The first time David Marshall had a goal-kick against West Ham, the two centre-backs split either side of the penalty box to be ready to receive possession. Other teams have done that plenty of times at Cardiff City Stadium, but I can’t remember when I last saw the Bluebirds enact those tactics.

Solskjaer clearly isn’t just talking the talk. He wants his defenders walking the walk by implementing his patient, passing game.

But therein is a problem because it’s questionable whether the new Cardiff boss has the personnel available to perform the function.

Steven Caulker is clearly City’s best footballing centre-back since the days of Danny Gabbidon, so no problem there. But who partners him?

Gallery: 11 things we learned from Cardiff's 2-0 defeat against West Ham

I’ve batted Ben Turner’s corner heavily this season, arguing right from the start – against heavy popular opinion – that he, not skipper Mark Hudson, would be Mackay’s pick as Caulker’s centre-back colleague.

Turner, I thought, would be more capable of dealing with nippy Premier League strikers because he has legs. But his distribution of the ball is poor and that doesn’t fit into Solskajer’s passing mantra.

Hudson is a bit more comfortable in possession, which is why he has been instantly been recalled by Solskjaer. But after his struggles against West Ham and Carlton Cole, the best we can say is that the jury is out on Hudson’s qualities as a Premier League centre-back.

The trouble is, with his Bluebirds in the bottom three and locked in a relegation battle, Solskjaer doesn’t have time to wait.

He either sticks with Hudson, which could prove costly, or buys big in this transfer window, Newcastle’s Steven Taylor one of the players Solskjaer has been linked with.

There is a third, much more left-field, option, though which I’m going to throw into the pot.

How about Gary Medel moving back from his defensive midfield role to playing next to Caulker? With Kevin Theophile-Catherine and likely new recruit Fabio da Silva as full-backs, suddenly the Cardiff back four would have real footballing ability across the line from right to left.

I already forsee the inevitable questions. How can you put a midfielder into defence? How can Medel, at 5ft 8in, deal with high balls into the box? If he does switch position, who covers his midfield destroyer’s role?

Tough-tackling Medel

Well, it’s worth pointing out that Medel never plays midfield for Chile, where the anchor role is held down by superb Juventus star Arturo Vidal.

Medel is always picked at centre-back and invariably shines in the position, too. I watched him play there against England at Wembley in November and he completely marked Wayne Rooney out of the game as Chile won 2-0.

I have rarely seen a Cardiff player with better positional sense than Medel. He just has this uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time to snuff out trouble and that anticipation is a precious commodity at international level where the best strikers are quick and possess clever movement.

But isn’t it like that in the Premier League, too, which makes Medel’s lack of height less of an issue?

I wouldn’t advocate him playing centre-back in the Championship, where your penalty box is under regular Route One aerial bombardment. But against nimble forwards such as Rooney, Suarez, Aguerro and Torres, I’d fancy Medel’s chances of coping with their sudden bursts more than those of Hudson or Turner.

Yes there will be the likes of Peter Crouch, Grant Holt and others to deal with in the coming months, but Caulker is more than adept at dealing with those aerial duels, enabling Medel to sweep up around him.

As for who could sit into Medel’s midfield position, well it looks like Magnus Wolff Eikrem is being groomed for that role anyhow. If Solskjaer wants more bite, the tenacious Aron Gunnarsson is another option.

Everything considered, maybe Medel at the back is not quite as left-field as first seems. Not even Peter Whittingham is more comfortable on the ball under pressure than Medel, who as well as being in the right place at the right time has this knack of being able to find a team-mate almost every time.

If his defenders keeping possession is the priority Solskjaer says it is, perhaps a Caulker-Medel centre-back axis, with Eikrem sitting just in front of them, could be an alternative way forward.

If so, the days of the Bluebirds lumping the ball upfield will be well and truly gone.

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.